Research Group Leads
Dr Seb Breitenbach – I am head of the EnMaR (Environmental Monitoring and Reconstruction) research group.
I am a palaeoclimatologist with strong affinity to caves and carbonates. I use carbonate chemistry and stable isotope geochemistry as tools to reconstruct past environmental and climate conditions. Ideally I then use these reconstructions to inform archaeologists, anthropologists and other interested parties and the public about the influence that climate has on society. I follow a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach and work closely with experts from a broad range of research fields. My research is globally spread as I select sites that are best suited for the research question at hand. Among other places, I work in Germany, Siberia, Mongolia, Mexico and Belize. I also ran clumped isotope thermometry in our new stable isotope laboratory.
Dr Jack Longman – I work in the field of
palaeoclimatology and am most interested in the role volcanoes play, through
the gases and solids they erupt, in controlling the climate of Earth.
I generally either analyse the chemistry of mud or use biogeochemical models to do this, and have worked on volcanoes of all ages, from modern to the Precambrian. I am also very interested in geoengineering and the possibility to mimic some volcanic processes to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Research Group ECR Representatives
Chloe Snowling - Chloe is a postgraduate researcher at Northumbria University studying past climatic and environmental change using stalagmite archives.
Her research focuses on reconstructing past monsoon variability across regions of Vietnam using bio- and geochemical proxies from cave deposits. Her broad skill set includes field and lab-based analytical techniques, ranging from cave science and mapping to isotope geochemistry and environmental science. Beyond her academic pursuits, she is an avid cave explorer, completing expeditions around the globe.
Aaditya Kapil - Aaditya is a PhD student at Northumbria University studying glacial geochemistry, and his research focuses on the subglacial environment and quantifying the chemical weathering rates.
Aaditya uses cosmogenic isotopes (meteoric 10Be) to study the chemical weathering rates from post-, pre-, and syn-glacial soil, with an aim to understand global carbon flux over the past glacial-interglacial period. His broad training skills include soil science, field and lab-based analytical techniques, biogeochemistry, isotope analysis, earth science processes, and data analysis.
The Full EnMaR team
Dr Shyamalie Balasooriya – details will be added soon
Dr Lindsay Bramwell – I am currently working on In2Air – Investigating impacts of energy efficiency retrofit on AQ and health and wellbeing and ECLIPS - Protocol development and feasibility study for the Elevated Childhood Lead Interagency Prevalence Study
Dr Ben Brock – I am a physical geographer and I study glacier-climate relationships, debris-covered glaciers, volcano-ice interactions, and the Quaternary evolution of glaciated landscapes.
Dr Mike Deary – details will be added soon
Dr Holly East – details will be added soon
Prof Jane Entwistle – I am a Fellow of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health, and on the steering group of the North-East Contaminated Land Forum which facilitates interaction between academics, practioners and regulators. I’m also co-founder of DustSafe and the recently launched Home Biome project, a global research initiative to obtain baseline data on chemicals and microbial communities in regular households via a global citizen science-academic partnership.
Dr Vasile Ersek – I am a palaeoclimatologist and geochemist and study past climate changes and human-environment interactions. I focus on cave and karst science, atmospheric processes, paleoclimatology, palaeoceanography, and peat geochemistry.
Assistant Prof Joseph Graly – I am geochemist and I focus on the chemical and physical processes occurring beneath the world’s large ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. I seek to understand the connections between the glacial processes, resultant geochemical effects, and feedbacks to global geochemical cycling.
